various names, one of the most common of which fignifies, "The Spirits of the mountains." See also Preface to Song XXV.

This fong (which Peck attributes to Ben Jonson, tho' it is not found among his works) is given from an ancient black letter copy in the British Mufæum. It seems to have been originally intended for fome Mafque.

ROM Oberon, in fairye land,

FRO

The king of ghofts and fhadowes there,

Mad Robin I, at his command,

Am fent to viewe the night-fports here.

What revell rout

Is kept about,

In every corner where I go,

I will o'erfee,

And merry bee,

And make good sport, with ho, ho, ho!

More fwift than lightening can I flye

About this aery welkin foone,

And, in a minutes space, defcrye

Each thing that's done belowe the moone.

There's not a hag

Or ghost shall wag,

Cry, ware Goblins! where I go;

But Robin I

Their feates will spy,

And fend them home, with ho, ho, ho!

Whene'er fuch wanderers I meete,

As from their night-fports they trudge home;

5

10

15

20

With counterfeiting voice I greete

1

And call them on, with me to roame
Thro' woods, thro' lakes,

Thro' bogs, thro' brakes;

Or elfe, unfeene, with them I go,
All in the nicke,

25

Unfeene of all the company,

I eat their cakes and fip their wine;

And, to make sport,

I fart and fnort;

And out the candles I do blow.

The maids I kifs;

They fhrieke-Who's this?

I answer nought, but ho, ho, ho!

45

50

Yet

Yet now and then, the maids to please,

At midnight I card up their wooll; And while they fleepe, and take their eafe, With wheel to threads their flax I pull. I grind at mill

Their malt up ftill;

I dress their hemp, I spin their tow.
If any 'wake,

And would me take,

I wend me, laughing, ho, ho, ho!

When houfe or harth doth fluttish lye,

I pinch the maidens blacke and blue;
The bed-clothes from the bed pull I,
And lay them naked all to view.
'Twixt fleepe and wake,

I do them take,

And on the key-cold floor them throw,
If out they cry,

Then forth I fly,

And loudly laugh out, ho, ho, ho!

When any need to borrowe ought,

We lend them what they do require;
And for the ufe demand we nought;
Our owne is all we do defire.

If to repay,

They do delay,

Abroad amongst them then I go,

55

60

65

70

75

And

And night by night,

I them affright

With pinchings, dreames, and ho, ho, ho! 80

When lazie queans have nought to do,
But study how to cog and lye ;

To make debate and mischief too,
"Twixt one another fecretlye:
I marke their gloze,

And it difclofe,

To them whom they have wronged fo;
When I have done,

I get me gone,

And leave them fcolding, ho, ho, ho!

When men do traps and engins fet

In loop-holes, where the vermine creepe,

Who from their foldes and houses, get

Their duckes and geefe, and lambes afleep:

Ifpy the gin,

And enter in,

And feeme a vermine taken fo

But when they there

Approach me neare,

I leap out laughing, ho, ho, ho!

By wells and rills, in meadowes greene,
We nightly dance our hey-day guife;

And to our fairye king, and queene,

We chant our moon-light harmonies.

85

90

95

100

When

When larks 'gin fing,
Away we fling;

And babes new-borne fteal as we go,

An elfe in bed

We leave instead,

And wend us laughing, ho, ho, ho!

From hag-bred Merlins time have I

Thus nightly revell'd to and fro;

And for my pranks men call me by
The name of Robin Good-fellow.
Fiends, ghosts, and sprites,

Who haunt the nightes,

The hags and goblins do me know;

And beldames old

My feates have told,

So Vale, Vale; ho, ho, ho!

120

XXV.

THE FAIRY QUEEN.

We have here a fort difplay of the popular belief concern→ ing FAIRIES. It will afford entertainment to a contemplative mind to trace thefe whimsical opinions up to their origin. Whoever confiders, bow early, how extenfively, and how uniformly they have prevailed in these nations, will not rea dily affent to the hypothefis of those, who fetch them from the east fo late as the time of the Croijades. Whereas it is well known that our Saxon ancestors long before they left their German forefts, believed the existence of a kind of dimi